Sara Crangle

Written against the backdrop of Brexit, this short article examines the long history of
British disregard for modernist and experimental avant-garde aesthetics, one frequently
commented upon by critics and artists over the past century. In What Ever Happened to
Modernism? Josipovici added his voice to this chorus, but his focus on British insularity
went unremarked by reviewers. In addition to considering this more recent text, the
article lingers over Josipovici’s ‘English Studies and European Culture’, an essay written
in the 1970s that presciently explores the symbiotic and primary relationship between
England and the continent.

A Short Story

Gabriel Josipovici

He climbs the stairs. I know him by his tread. My brother! The door
creaks a little as he pushes it. Now he steps inside and says hello. He
stands by the door and looks round. What a funny place to be, he says.
Not the house, he adds. The house is very nice. Very nice indeed, as far
as I can judge. But why do you sit here in the dusk like that? I knew it
was you, I tell him. He comes forward into the room. There is nowhere
for him to sit.

Ludivine Broch

In recent decades historians have done a lot to reveal the social and
political diversity of the people who participated in the French Resistance.
But little has been said about non-white resisters who were among the
200,000 men and women from the colonies living in the French metropole
during the Occupation. This article shows that many of them were entangled
in the Resistance as early as the summer of 1940 and that they became
involved in the most political and violent forms of defiance. Resistance,
however, was not a “natural” decision for many of the colonial workers or
prisoners, whose daily struggles could bring them into tension with the Free
French as well as Vichy. So, if this study aims to rectify misconceptions of the
Resistance as an entirely Eurocentric affair, it also probes the complicated
relationship between colonial subjects and the metropole during the war.

Uneven development, the politics of scale, or global austerity?

Ida Susser

This afterword discusses the analysis of “austerity” and globalization and
the possible parallels between a history of structural adjustment policies in the
Global South combined with further cuts in social funding of recent years with
the experience of “austerity” in Europe following the 2008 economic crisis. Questions
with respect to the ways in which uneven development and the history of
colonialism might complicate the experience in the Global South despite parallel
governing strategies are raised. In addition, I suggest the consideration of scale in
terms of the implementation of global versus national or local policies, the different
scales at which resistance occurs, and the historical circumstances in which
classes or subaltern groups coalesce might be important further considerations in
this analysis.

Geoffrey Bindman

Antisemitism is hostility to Jews as Jews, but defining antisemitism is complicated by
Zionism and the existence of the State of Israel. The fundamental right to freedom of
expression is threatened by the misuse of a definition of antisemitism and claimed
examples of antisemitic conduct that encourage confusion between antisemitism and
criticism of the policies and practices of the Israeli government and its institutions. The
right to express criticism and to debate such policies and practices must not be suppressed
by reliance on unsubstantiated claims of antisemitism.

Negotiating between Stereotypical Femininity and Self-expression in Patriarchal Japan

Marta Fanasca

In this article, I focus on the childhood and adolescent life experiences
of dansō (female-to-male crossdressers) who work as escorts in contemporary
Japan, and on the process that led to their presentation of self as gendered masculine
in their private and working lives. During their childhood and adolescence,
dansō have to negotiate their identity and self-presentation to adhere to the gendered
pressures of Japanese society. Through an analysis of interviews undertaken
with 14 dansō informants, I explore dansō’s construction of a male identity before
adulthood, highlighting the societal impositions they experienced and the coping
strategies to which they resorted in order to create and maintain a space in which
to express their queer selves.

Galia Golan

The failure to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict for many years
has often been attributed in significant part to the absence of trust in the
sincerity of the other side and, more specifically, to the recalcitrant nature
of the opponent. Analyses of past proposals and actual negotiations have
pointed out missed opportunities, possibly the result of misperceptions
or misunderstandings. Recent archival research, publications, and interviews
regarding the Israeli protagonists reveal that actual deception, as
distinct from ‘misperception’, may have been at play. The article examines
this phenomenon as it has appeared since 1967 in six instances of Israeli
government dealings with its own public and with the US or the international
community, even in recent months, due primarily to an unwillingness
to withdraw from the Occupied Territories or agree to enter serious
negotiations for ending the conflict with the Palestinians.